Inquiry Into Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond

Click here for August 28 follow-up story by Inner City Press.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 24 (updated Aug. 28, 1 pm) -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has let eight weeks pass without responding to a request for information about senior UN officials receiving housing subsidies from their country of nationality, it emerged on Thursday.  Former Deputy Secretary Louise Frechette was asked if she received such subsidies and said no, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Despite a specific request from Inner City Press at 5 p.m. Thursday for a similar response from Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of UN peacekeeping, five hours later by 10 p.m. deadline no response was received. Deputy UN peacekeeping spokesman Hernan Vales said that since Mr. Guehenno is out of the country, no response will be possible until next week.

            High-placed sources within UN Headquarters showed Inner City Press a copy of a letter from U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton, dated June 27, 2006, to Secretary-General. Kofi Annan. The letter asked Mr. Annan for information about UN officials who receive housing subsidies from their countries of nationality in contravention of their duties, under Article 100.1 of the UN Charter, to "refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization" of the UN.

            One week ago, Inner City Press asked the deputy spokesman of the U.S. Mission, Benjamin Chang, if any response to the letter, whose existence had yet to be publicly disclosed, had been received. Inner City Press also asked if the U.S. Mission was aware if the Secretary-General has filed his required financial disclosure.  While the latter question has yet to be answered, Mr. Chang stated that while he was unaware of Ambassador Bolton's letter he would check.

            Late on the afternoon of August 24, the lead spokesman of the U.S. Mission Richard A. Grenell called Inner City Press offering to fax a copy of John Bolton's letter. His office told Inner City Press that no response has been received, eight weeks after the letter was sent to Kofi Annan.

            Inner City Press then immediately provided a copy of the letter to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, and asked if and why not response had been provided, and for responses specifically on Louise Frechette and Jean-Marie Guehenno. These two individuals were named to Inner City Press by the sources who first showed glimpses of the letter.

            Mr. Dujarric responded, as to Canadian Ms. Frechette, that "I asked her and she said no."  As to Jean-Marie Guehenno, Annan's spokesman's office did not provide a denial, nor any other response for the following five hours.

Guehenno, back in Haiti

            On August 22, at the UN's formal noon press conference, Inner City Press had inquired into the location and activities of Mr. Guehenno, whose deputy Hedi Annabi had been conducting the UN peacekeeping work of meeting with potential troop contributors to the UN's Lebanon force. The spokesman said that Mr. "Guehenno is in France on personal business." Video here, from Minute 42:23.

            In the spirit of disclosure, Inner City Press has previously interviewed Jean-Marie Guehenno concerning this year's loss of focus, at least in Africa,on peacekeeping and concerning the offer of a colonel's position in the Congolese Army to Peter Karim, whose militia took hostage seven UN peacekeepers earlier until early last month. Mr. Guehenno, who had previously told Inner City Press that Peter Karim "is on drugs," more recently explained the negotiations as solved because the hostage takers "just wanted jobs." Mr. Guehenno also responded to questions about the UN's Congo Mission's self-exoneration regarding reported abuse at Kazana in Eastern Congo by saying the report was still being considered, a statement yet to be followed up. Video here, Minutes 23:50 to 30:30.

            Thursday afternoon, less than an hour after the U.S. Mission provided a copy of John Bolton's letter, Inner City Press sought out lead UN Peacekeeping spokesman Nick Birnback but was told that he is out until August 29. Deputy spokesman for peacekeeping Hernan Vales said that "all of these issues are personal and confidential" and are "not really work related."

            As Inner City Press, and the letter, pointed out to Mr. Vales, the UN's bulletin on financial disclosure and declaration of interest statements, Document ST/SGB/2006/6, requires the disclosure of "any form of supplement, direct or indirect, to the United Nations emoluments, including provisions of housing or subsidized housing or any... benefit, remuneration or in kind contribution from any government, governmental agency or other non United Nations source aggregating $250 or more...".  Article 100.1 of the UN Charter requires that Secretariat staff "refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization" of the UN.

            Asked to respond to this logic, that senior UN official need to have their allegiance be, and to seen to be, only to the UN, and not their country of nationality, Mr. Vales asked Inner City Press to hold off publishing this story. When Mr. Vales then said that no response would be possible until next week, Inner City Press decided to wait four more hours for any written responses, and then publish.

Update of August 25, 5 p.m. -- Just prior to the UN noon press briefing on Friday, Kofi Annan's spokesman called Inner City Press aside and said, "I have answers for you, if you'll wait until after the briefing."

 "What are the answers?"

  "We're aware of the letter and we're responding to it. These are obviously issues we are looking at through the financial disclosures."

  The spokesman issued an off-the-record, then subsequently on-the-record, denial as to Jean-Marie Guehenno. On other issues he has promised to respond.

Update of August 28, 1 p.m. -- At Monday's noon briefing, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric answered questions about the housing subsidies by saying it is still being looked into.

  Also Monday Inner City Press asked Ambassador Bolton three questions: his view on the Secretariat's non-response for two months, what the letter was getting at, and whether he is aware if the Secretary-General has filed in required financial disclosure form. Video here, from Minute 8:20.

  Amb. Bolton answered that the housing subsidies to which the letter referred appear to violate UN regulations, that he wanted an answer, and that he is not aware if Mr. Annan has filed his financial disclosure form. This last, Inner City Press asked in connection with its inquiry into the purchase of part of Compass / ESS, embroiled in a United Nations scandal, by Sweden's Wallenberg family, of which the UN's Secretary General's wife is a member, click here for that August 28 story by Inner City Press.

se, or revert as is often said in UN-land. Developing.

 For or with more information: editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Text of letter

June 27, 2006

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

         A recent review of your bulletin on financial disclosure and declaration of interest statements (ST/SGB/2006/6) raised a few questions about acceptance of benefits by UN staff members, their spouses and dependent children. The financial disclosure regulations refer, for example, to "Any form of supplement, direct or indirect, to the United Nations emoluments, including provisions of housing or subsidized housing or any... benefit, remuneration or in kind contribution from any government, governmental agency or other non United Nations source aggregating $250 of more..."

        Any acceptance of benefits should, of course, not contravene the Charter requirements that Secretariat staff "refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization (Art 100.1). It is therefore important that there be complete transparency with regard to such benefits. We think that it is essential that even the appearance of action inconsistent with article 100 of the Charter be avoided.

       To this end, please make available to member states the following information: the number of staff members of the United Nations required to file disclosures who have received such housing or subsidized housing or other benefits,; the source of such benefits; and the value of such housing or housing subsidies or other benefits. We recognize that there may be a need to maintain confidentiality in regard to certain information required in connection with the financial disclosure regulations. However, any such requirement need not and should not restrict the disclosure of the type of information that we are requesting.

Sincerely,

John R. Bolton

   This letter was shown to Inner City Press by UN Headquarters sources and subsequently confirmed and provided by the U.S. Mission on August 24, 2006

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Congo Shootout Triggers Kofi Annan Call, While Agent Orange Protest Yields Email from Old London

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- Kofi Annan placed telephone calls to the Congo as his envoy William Lacy Swing was pinned down by the DCR presidential guards' artillery fire while in the home of second-place finisher Jean-Pierre Bemba. These details emerged Tuesday at UN headquarters, from which Mr. Annan has been placing a much higher volume of calls about the Middle East.

   In an impromptu interview with Inner City Press in the hallway outside the Security Council, the UN's deputy chief of peacekeeping Hedi Annabi said Mr. Swing is safe and sound, and that the Secretary-General's calls to both Joseph Kabila and Bemba "seemed to have some effect." Another UN staffer soon thereafter made an off-color and -the-cuff joke about invitations to have lunch with Bemba, whose campaigning includes denying a cannibal past.

   The Security Council after a hastily-called meeting on Tuesday afternoon issued a press statement calling among other things on Messrs. Kabila and Bemba to keep their gunmen off the streets, for the electoral process and calendar to be respected. Inner City Press asked the Council's president Nana Effah-Apenteng if any appeals or challenges to the election have yet been filed, and if the Kabila forces, which fired even on William Lacy Swing, had committed to the Secretary-General to henceforth cease and desist. "Don't know" was the answer to the former, and to the latter too, in essence. Video at http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/sc/so060822pm1.rm

            While the shooting at his envoy got Kofi on the phone to Kinshasa, the same can't be said of Somalia, as it veers toward Horn-wide war. For weeks Inner City Press has asked what the UN is doing, including specifically for it to confirm or deny the widely-reported presence of Ethiopian troops in Baidoa and elsewhere. Monday Kofi Annan's spokesman said the "Somalia file is with the Department of Political Affairs," whom he would ask to respond. Tuesday at noon, Inner City Press repeated its request. At an early afternoon stakeout, UN Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari was asked by Inner City Press what he and his office are going on Somalia, specifically the Ethiopian troops.

UN's Air Africa -- coming or going? per Ian Steele

  Mr. Gambari responded that "DPA is the lead department on Somalia... We support Francois Fall" who is "promoting dialogue" between the "fragile and weak" Transitional Federal Government and the Islamic Courts. Without specifying whether Ethiopian troops are in Somalia or not, Mr. Gambari inveighed against the introduction of elements into "fragile" Somalia. Video at http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/sc/so060822pm.rm

            But it precisely because the Transitional Federal Government installed in Baidoa is so fragile, and losing support, that Ethiopia's intervening, and the UN looking the other way...

  Near deadline, from the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General came this:

"Like you, we have read reports in the press of the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil but have no independent confirmation of it. The UN Political Office for Somalia (DPA's primary source of information on Somalia), which is based in Nairobi, has neither the mandate nor the field monitoring capacity to assess the veracity of such reports."

  So -- the UN's lead division on Somalia has as its primary (and apparently only) sources of information an office that says it has no mandate to see or report on the invasion of one country by another? The questions will continue because they must.

On the UN - Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

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